John Waters and The Irish Times
BACKGROUND: John Waters is an Irish journalist and author whose contrarian personality and passionate writing style invite comparisons with Christopher Hitchens. Born in Castlerea, Co Roscommon in 1955, he worked as a railway clerk in the west of Ireland before taking up writing. His books include Jiving at the Crossroads (1991) and Race Of Angels (1994), and among his plays are Nick Hern (1995) and Easter Dues (1996). He's been a popular Irish Times columnist for a decade now.
Waters moved from commenting on the news to being the news when his relationship with Irish rock star Sinead O'Connor became public. The birth of a daughter, Roisin, to the couple added to the writer's notoriety. As well, his profile has been enhanced in recent years by his unrelenting dedication to a campaign for equitable parental rights, especially the rights of fathers. In his Irish Times column, he does regular battle with a family bureaucracy in which, as he sees it, mothers are regarded as "real' parents and fathers are not.
CONTEXT: Here is a news report from the Irish national broadcasting service, RTE, dated 23 November 2003:
"The Irish Times has fired its columnist John Waters, after comments he made about payments to directors and the former editor Conor Brady.Mr Waters told RTÉ Radio last week that the newspaper withdrew his column on the issue, claiming the article was libellous, inaccurate and had issues of taste.
In a letter to Mr Waters yesterday, editor Geraldine Kennedy said that he had expressed the view publicly that she was compromised in her role, and that she was relieving him of any further neccessity to contribute to the newspaper."
What's meant by "payments" here? What kind of sums are involved? Well, in journalism, the money scale runs from subsistence wages for today's Google driven equivalent of the Grub Street drudge to the reported $500,000 a year paid to Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal. But then the Journal is a global newspaper and Mossberg has built up a huge following in the vital technology sector over the past 30 years. Dublin isn't New York and the Irish Times isn't exactly what the Forbes 100 read at breakfast. Maybe not, but it has emerged that the annual remuneration packages of editor Geraldine Kennedy and of managing director Maeve Donovan — including pay, perks and pension contributions — are said to be worth over €400,000. Not bad, eh? But not exactly the kind of sums you want circulating if you're paring budgets, firing people and dealing with the fallout from one disastrous management decision after another.
Yesterday, Waters was re-instated by the Irish Times following a "frank exchange of views" between him and Ms Kennedy. As well, The Irish Times Ltd agreed to publish a letter disclosing details of the remuneration paid to its senior executives. Score one, and a big one, for the columnist.
Diarist of the day: Gyles Brandreth, 26 November 1992"A perk of the place [House of Commons] is a free medical check-up. The doctor (thirty-something, a touch insipid, a specialist in 'occupational medicine') comes in two or three times a week and is available in a small, airless makeshift surgery located off the Cromwell Lobby. He did all the usual tests and I was given the usual verdict. 'A little more exercise probably wouldn't do any harm. Most people put on a stone or so when the come here. You haven done too badly. Moderation in all things.' My cholesterol is at the upper edge of the range. Why did I lie about my alcohol consumption? I said half a bottle of wine a day and it must be two-thirds. (I assume everyone lies and when you say half a bottle he puts down two-thirds.)"
